Chinese New Year brings new cultural experience for Chicago students

The Chicago Westside Christian School in Lawndale is only 9 miles from Pui Tak Christian School in Chinatown.

But when 31 students from Chicago Westside hopped into vans Friday afternoon, the day after Pui Tak students and others in Chinatown celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year, they crossed geographical and ethnic boundaries to plug into a world that is new to them.

Many children at Chicago Westside, which is 90 percent African-American, rarely venture out of their neighborhoods and have not interacted with children of Chinese heritage, co-principal Jeralyn Harris said.

The visit allowed the children a rare opportunity to learn about the traditions of the Chinese New Year from their peers.

"I just think your learning is incomplete if you only learn about yourself," Harris said. "I want to stretch the students' learning."

June Gin, assistant principal at Pui Tak, first met Harris in May at a No Child Left Behind conference.

Both recognized the need for people to learn about different cultures and ethnicities early in life. They felt most comfortable starting with Christian schools because the schools share common features and a mission of spiritual education.

So when the two met last month to talk about a pen pal program they are starting between their schools, Gin invited Harris to join them in their Chinese New Year celebration. This way, the students could meet face-to-face before writing letters to one another.

The basement of the Chinese Christian Union Church, at 2301 S. Wentworth Ave., where the Pui Tak school is housed, became a makeshift classroom Friday and the students became teachers.

Dressed in brightly colored Chinese tunics and dresses, the hosts nervously squirmed in their chairs as they taught the Chicago Westside students everything from brush painting and panda mask-making to paper tearing and the significance of food. The young teachers occasionally slipped in "try your best," and "good job" to encourage their peers.

The Chicago Westside students popped in and out of five stations, carefully copying the brush strokes of their teachers and hesitantly sampling foods they had never heard of, such as dry-water chestnuts, eggs boiled in tea and soy sauce. The children carried oranges because fruits are common gifts that visitors bring for the Chinese holiday.

"The lotus roots taste weird," said John Wagenmaker, a 4th grader at Chicago Westside. But he happily forked through half of a tea egg.

The 4,706th Chinese New Year, the year of the rat, began Thursday, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. It is usually celebrated for about 15 days, when the moon is believed to be the brightest.

Before the new year, families clean their homes to rid the bad luck collected from the previous year. On New Year's Day, they feast on traditional dishes.